Can't find menu.lst to edit grub options

[barzefutz]

Hello,

I installed tiny core linux on my hard drive using the official guide: http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/install.html

Then I installed the firefox extension which worked fine, except that it's gone when I reboot my laptop and I have to install it again. After some digging in the documentation, I found the following:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/faq.html#persist

I then went on to edit my grub config file, but the problem is that I can't find it. In the install guide, I used "vi /mnt/sda1/boot/grub/menu.lst" to edit the grub menu file, however, in my now-installed system, this file does not exist anymore, and /mnt/sda1 contains nothing, when I open it in the file manager, it's empty. Of course I must be doing something wrong, but I can't figure it out because I'm a beginner with linux. How can I edit the menu.lst file?

Thank you in advance

[gerald_clark]

You have to mount sda1 first. Use the mount tool.

You do not need to modify menu.lst unless it is to add a waitusb=5 option.

Start AppBrowser.  Click the "Set" button on the lower right corner and
select the proper drive partition from the left panel.
Now you can connect and install extensions.

[barzefutz]

Hello, thanks for your quick reply. I did as you said and after I downloaded the firefox extension, I can see that it was now installed to /mnt/sda1/tce when I open the file manager. So it seems to have been correctly installed to my hard drive. But when I want to reboot tiny core linux, it says:

"Errors occured during backup! See: /tmp/backup_status."

The backup folder displayed in the reboot dialog is "/mnt/sda1/tce". I used the file manager to check if this directory exists, and it does.

I tried to view the backup_status file by invoking "less /tmp/backup_status", but it doesn't exist. I had a look in the file manager, and it also doesn't show a file called backup_status on /tmp.

When I ignore the error and reboot anyway, the firefox extension is gone...

[Guy]

It is not clear what is happening in your situation. However, here is some info.

A simple way to edit menu.lst, is to open the terminal and type:

sudo editor

Then use the editor to edit menu.lst.

I suggest you include tce=sda1 to menu.lst.

I also recommend adding opt=sda1 and home=sda1.

For more info see http://wiki.tinycorelinux.net/wiki:installing_tc_-_alternate_offline_guide


Firefox should remain, even if backup is not working. The extension and others should be in /mnt/sda1/tce/optional.

Check if it is in OnBoot or OnDemand, using the Apps Audit. If not, put it in.

For more info see http://wiki.tinycorelinux.net/wiki:installing_applications


As I said, it is not clear what is happening. What you are saying does not make sense.

Is Tiny Core installed in sda1, or is it in another partition? If it is an older computer, the hard drive may be hda1, and sda1 may be a usb drive.

Is the partition formatted with ntfs? That could cause problems. It should be ext3.

Keep experimenting, read the documentation, ask questions, and see if you can find something which makes it clearer.

People on this forum are very helpful. It is just that it is not clear what is happening in your situation.

[barzefutz]

I've already tried booting with these options, specifically I tried

tce=sda1 home=sda1 opt=sda1

When tiny core was loaded, I ran the file manager and I could see that the opt and home data was stored on sda1, so everything seemed to work at first. However, again the same problem, everything is lost on reboot. Just to clarify, when I specify a TCE directory on a hard drive, are the extensions directly written to that hard disk, or are they just kept in RAM and written to disk on reboot when the backup script runs? Because I really don't understand why the extensions are deleted on reboot when they're correctly written to sda1 (as I can see in the file manager). When I run the "mount" command, I can see that /dev/sda1 is correctly mounted.

I double checked that I have set OnBoot for Firefox in the Apps Manager.

Tiny core is installed on sda1, it's the internal SATA hard drive of my laptop. It's the only hard drive, there is no other storage media present (no USB pen drives or card readers). The partition is correctly formatted with ext3, I double checked.

I will now try to install tiny core again, using the manual you provided ( http://wiki.tinycorelinux.net/wiki:installing_tc_-_alternate_offline_guide ). Is this any different to the manual on http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/install.html ?

[Rich]

Hi barzefutz
When you call up AppBrowser does the TCE: field say  /mnt/sda1/tce/optional

[gerald_clark]

You should not use home= or opt= unless you know exactly what you are doing.

[Guy]

I will now try to install tiny core again, using the manual you provided ( http://wiki.tinycorelinux.net/wiki:installing_tc_-_alternate_offline_guide ). Is this any different to the manual on http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/install.html ?

The finished installation should be the same.

This is written for those who don't have an appropriate internet connection to be used during installation.

It also explains things in a different way. If there is something you don't understand on one page, see the other.


I suggest using an even easier way.

Download and use tinycore_3.6rc3. People reading this in the future, should use the latest version. This is the latest version at the time of writing.

Use HD/USB Install. It can be found in the Control Panel.

Be aware, if you select "Whole Disk," it will reformat the whole disk, and will wipe out any other partitions, including the swap partition. This is not ideal when installing to a hard drive.

I suggest:

Set up partitions the way you want them using GParted, before installation. You can install GParted in Tiny Core, or download Parted Magic, and use it.

Include a swap partition.

If Tiny Core is the only operating system to be installed on the hard drive, set the flag on the partition as "Boot," which is the same as "Active." Do this using GParted.

During installation, you then need to select "Existing Partition."

If you install using this method, Tiny Core should just work.


Be aware:

If you have both Windows and Tiny Core on the hard drive, setting the Tiny Core partition as "Boot," will prevent you from running Windows.

If you are running both Windows and Tiny Core, you may install Tiny Core using this method, leave the Windows partition as "Boot," then install Grub as shown in the links above.

[Guy]

You should not use home= or opt= unless you know exactly what you are doing.

Why?

When installing to a hard drive, including persistent home and opt is the best way to install it.

The only advantage of not having persistent home or opt, is when installing to a solid state drive, such as a usb drive. In this situation, using backup instead of persistent home and opt, reduces the amount of writing to the drive, which results in it lasting longer.

[gerald_clark]

Then you know what you are doing.
Blindly using opt= and home= without understanding what you are doing will cause many problems.

The OP does not understand TC, and until he does these options should be avoided.

[Guy]

Blindly using opt= and home= without understanding what you are doing will cause many problems.

What problems?

[tinypoodle]

You should not use home= or opt= unless you know exactly what you are doing.

Why?

- If a user does not know exactly what they are doing, there will be conflicts between default content of backup versus home= or opt=
- ext* would be the only filesystems opt= and home= would work without prior modifications.
More generally speaking, until a user has become familiar with the particularities of a system it is recommendable to use default mode/options.

When installing to a hard drive, including persistent home and opt is the best way to install it.

The only advantage of not having persistent home or opt, is when installing to a solid state drive, such as a usb drive.

I see multiple advantages of not having persistent home or opt when installing to hard drive:

- portability
- noise reduction
- heat reduction
- generally less wear and tear caused by moving mechanical parts and heat
- most simple and easy way of reducing energy consumption while avoiding having to fiddle with hdparm or sdparm
- double purpose of TC backup for scheduled restoring and as literal backup; personally I have used the latter function a multiple times of the first    

Edit: regarding backup, it is also easy to archive all or selective backups just by e.g. renaming serially or by date, so one could always revert the system to a former state, if so desirable for whatever reasons.

[Guy]

On a forum, people sometimes have different opinions. That is OK. The readers can form their own opinion.

When I first started using Tiny Core, a short time after it was first released, my first reaction was like the other opinions expressed - Use the default options. As I learnt more, I realized there was a better way.

I still believe when installing to a hard drive, including persistent home and opt is the best way to install it. Even for new users.

There are advantages in installing it this way.

Until the user learns how to determine what is included in backup, if some files in home or opt are also included in backup, it does not cause any problems.

Using persistent home and opt will not cause any problems.

There is no valid reason why persistent home and opt should not be used when installing to a hard drive.

I don't want to debate this. We can agree to have different opinions.

[gerald_clark]

Yes, we can have different opinions,
but you should not tell a user who cannot get a system working to use advanced options.
Those options require changes to .filetool.lst, and the OP has not yet achieved persistence.

[tinypoodle]

Plus the much more restricted filesystem preconditions for home= opt= (same also would apply to local=) should be explicitely pointed out.